National perspectives by CECE members

The national CECE member associations shed more light on regional developments in the European construction equipment sector, describing main drivers of growth and forecasting the year 2023.

Country How did the market develop in 2022?

Belgium Earthmoving and construction equipment

- Invoices >10Ton; close to 2021 results

- Invoices <10T : -6%

- Order intakes >10T : 3% (July)

- Order intakes : <10T : 50% (July)

What were the main drivers?

Earthmoving and construction equipment

- The scarce availability of machines in Belgium, combined with massive orders in 2021, created a bottleneck. These delivery problems seem to be resolving for a few months now. Decreases in orders are being offset by deliveries of older orders, flattening the decrease curb.

- The order books for infrastructure works are still booming. Thanks to some major projects, of which Oosterweel is a long term infrastructure project supported by the government.

- Private estate development is struggling.

- The lack of resources (mainly technicians) is worsening and has a severe impact on the activity.

What is the forecast for 2023?

Earthmoving and construction equipment

The decrease will not be dramatic in 2023 due to the spreading of deliveries of 2022 orders and the huge Oosterweel project guaranteeing work for years.

Source : Sigma (Equipment Representatives for Public and Private Works, Building and Handling).

Finland

- Equipment import increased by 7 % and export increased by 12 %

- Rental markets estimated to have increased by 8 %

- Construction increased by 2 %

France

- Sales growth in the first quarter, weak market in the spring and during the summer, dynamic in the fourth quarter

- Stable market in 2022

In detail :

- 4% drop for heavy earthmov, ing equipment,

- 1.5% increase for compact l k k equipment,

- -1% for road equipment and

--12.5% for concrete equipment

- Main drivers in construction were building projects from previous years and high level of housing and facility construction

- Repair construction will increase next year

- High inflation with high interest rates will limit construction projects

- Rental companies back to the market

- Market determined by production capacity of factories

- Problem of delivery of parts and components less strong

- But a year 2022 marked by a sharp increase in prices

- Construction will decrease by 2 %

- Rental markets will decrease by 2 %

- Around -5% forecasted in 2023

Country How did the market develop in 2022?

Germany - Construction equipment sales were flat compared to previous year

- All-time record high of 2021 was confirmed

- Light and compact equipment had minimal growth while heavy machinery saw small declines

Italy

- Construction equipment sales up 18% by product line:

- Earthmoving machines sales up 19%

- Road equipment sales decrease -10%

What were the main drivers?

- All customer segments had a robust development in 2022

- Once more, machine availability was the limiting factor for sales

- Sector proved very resilient despite much higher input costs

- In 2023, residential construction will be weaker because of high interest rates

- Positive expectations

- Road works

- Civil works

- Safety and 4.0 capital goods incentives

What is the forecast for 2023?

- Sales on the German market are expected to decline by approx. 5%

- Industry turnover from German production could still grow thanks to good export business

- Sales volume: +6%

The Netherlands

- Slowdown after significant increase of total market demand last 4-5 years

- Strong: mid-size rental, material handling, waste handling, demolition, civil

- Equal: Landscaping, gardening

- Weak: compact rental

Norway - 1,5% growth in sales quantity

- Largest growth for excavators

- Turnover growth in members company with 5,6%

- Delivery times shorten, and several have machines on stock in the beginning av 2023

- Lower request for zero emis-

Construction Equipment sales up by 4,7 % and an increase of 9% since 2019.

- Earthmoving sales down by

- Compaction sales up by 5%

- Despite growth of more than 5% for two consecutive years, the Spanish economy is still below pre-pandemic levels.

- Growth in construction sector

- The situation of the war in Ukraine and the increase in energy costs have not been particularly damaging, although problems in the supply chain and inflation in raw materials have caused some problems.

- The challenges with Nitrogen deposits legislation is still pending but the attention to take constructive actions is moved a bit forward to come first to final conclusions. Too early to estimate how it will influence the construction sector.

- Strong demand for Zero Emission machines.

- Commissioning of public construction projects. Infrastructure road and rail

- The private marked for home and cottage has fallen dramatically and we need this to increase.

- 2% economic growth expected in NL

- The purchase indicators show there is still appetite by customers in NL to purchase machines

- Stable demand for raw materials related to the construction industry and strong demand in material handling of coal by several industrial port material handling companies

- Structural growth potential in housing due to shortage in this sector

- The market has cooled, and from October 22 there has been lower requests for new machinery

- Rental market is increasing, contractors hesitates to own new machinery

- The contractors have never been more pessimistic than the last survey (November 22)

- The member companies are pending for signals for the second half of 2023

- Economic Growth +5%

- Activity on major infrastructure projects has supported growth.

- Significant investments in areas such as railway, housing rehabilitation and development of sustainable cities.

- Actions to improve quality and reliability in the commuter rail service like a new rail access to the Barcelona airport, improve the electrification of the Valencia and Andalusia network, double tracks and improve level passes in Cantabria, improve the control, command and signaling subsystem in Madrid and Asturias. Also important investments in the Atlantic and Mediterranean Corridors and improvement in Madrid north.

- Sales volume +4%.

- Slight deceleration of construction market although growing by 1,8% due to slowdown of economy (growth of 1,6%), inflation and rise of interest rates.

- We expect a growth of 6,5% in civil engineering.

- Big expectations on the rehabilitation market generated by the stimulus of “Next Generation” funds.

- The investment in Spain will increase by 6,8% in civil works and engineering.

Country How did the market develop in 2022?

Sweden - Large back-log of orders

- Still relatively strong new orders

- Good financial year

- Still materials shortages

Turkey January-November export figures increased from 1.598 million USD to 1.780 million USD. This means a growth of 11.4% compared to 2021. In addition, when we look at the January-November figures, the ratio of exports to imports is 110.6%.

UK

- Sales of construction and earthmoving equipment grew by just under 3% in 2022

- Growth in sales was in the second half of the year, particularly Q4, when the impact of supply chain constraints began to ease.

- Equipment sales in 2022 exceeded the peak levels reached in 2021, and were the highest since before the “financial crash” in 2008

What were the main drivers?

- Continued materials shortages, but improving

- Long lead times, but improving

- Decreasing demand from construction sector, still sufficient

- Increased demand for low-emission/ electric products

- Strong mining sector

- Large share of exports

- Our important position in the supply chain

- Maintaining the vitality of domestic demand on a sectoral basis

- The significant increase in demand in foreign markets is also effective

- Construction output grew by 5.6% in 2022. Strongest growth was in the first quarter and activity was fairly flat for the rest of the year, with supply chain constraints being a factor.

- Strongest growth was in the infrastructure sector, which is already at historically high levels of activity. This sector has benefitted from multi-billion pound projects such as HS2, the Thames Tideway Tunnel and Hinkley Point C.

What is the forecast for 2023?

- Still strong but somewhat reduced from 2022 levels

- Decline expected, mainly due to weakening construction sector

The concepts of green transformation, electrification, digitalization and sharing economy are becoming more effective and common in our industry and a size change between +10% / -10% is predicted in Turkish construction equipment market for 2023.

- Construction output is forecast to decline by 4.7% in 2023. A weak housing sector is expected to be the main drag on activity. Infrastructure is forecast to show further growth.

- Sales of equipment are expected to decline by 7% in 2023, reflecting lower levels of construction activity. Sales in the early part of the year may benefit from delayed demand from 2022 due to supply chain constraints limiting machine manufacturing activity and supply.